Another kind of slurring—occurring almost exclusively in Modern English poetry—is effected by contraction of a short vowel with a preceding long one, so that a disyllabic word becomes monosyllabic, e.g., flower, lower, power, tower, coward, prayer, jewel, cruel, doing, going, being, seeing, dying, playing, praying, knowing, &c.: Whose pówer divíne Sur. 118; prayer: prayr Wyatt 26; His crúel despíte Sur. 7.
All these words are, of course, not less frequently used as disyllables sometimes even when their usual pronunciation is monosyllabic, e.g.:
How óft have Í, my déar and crúël foe.Wyatt 14.
I’ll práy a thóusand práyërs fór thy death.
Shak. Meas. III. i. 146.
There ís no pówer ín the tóngue of mán. id. Merch. IV. i. 241
§ 111. Other groups of sounds which allow slurring are: vowel + r + vowel, where the second vowel may be slurred, e.g., spirit, alarum, warrant, nourish, flourish, &c.; My fáther’s spírit in árms! Shak. Haml. I. ii. 255; flóurishing péopled tówns id. Gentl. V.iv. 3; I wárrant, it wíll id. Haml. I. ii. 243. In the group vowel + v + e(i)+cons. the v is slurred, if a consonant appears as the initial sound of the following word, and e(i) if the following word begins with a vowel. Such words are: heaven, seven, eleven, devil, even, ever, never, &c.; e.g., and é’en the whóle Wyatt 80; had néver his fíll id. 108; disdáin they né’er so múch Shak. 1 Hen. VI, V. iii. 98; and drível on péarls Wyatt 195. These words have, of course, not less frequently their full syllabic value: Of Héaven gátes Wyatt 222; Then sét this drível óut of dóor Sur. 79. Also th between vowels may be subjected to slurring, as in whether, whither, hither, thither, either, neither, rather, further, &c.; e.g., go ásk him whíther he góes Shak. 1 Hen. VI, II. iii. 28; Good Sír, say whéther you’ll ánswer mé or nót, id. Caes. V. iv. 30; Whether óught to ús unknówn id. Haml. II. ii. 17.
When a syllabic inflexional ending forms one thesis with a following syllable, as in The ímages of revólt Shak. Lear, II. iv. 91; I hád not quóted him id. Haml. II. i. 112, &c., it is preferable to assume a disyllabic thesis rather than a slurring. Sometimes, however, the -ed of past participles (rarely of preterites) of verbs ending in t is actually cut off, as torment instead of tormented Wyatt 137; deject instead of dejected Shak. Haml. III. i. 163.
Contractions of another kind—partly to be explained by negligent colloquial pronunciation—are: ta’en (=taken) Wyatt 182; I’ll (=I will) Shak. Tempest, II. ii. 419; carry ’em (=carry them) id. 2 Hen. VI, I. iv. 76, &c.; Ma(d)am id. Gent. II. i. 6; in’s (=in his), doff (=do off), dout (=do out), o’ the (=of the), w’us (=with us), let’s (=let us), thou’rt (=thou art), &c., &c.
Finally, we have to mention the apocopation, for metrical reasons, of unaccented prefixes, as ’bove (above), ’cause (because), ’longs (belongs), &c., which on the whole cannot easily be misunderstood.[139]